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Avengers: Endgame
| producer = Kevin Feige | screenplay = | based on = | starring = | music = Alan Silvestri | cinematography = Trent Opaloch | editing = | studio = Marvel Studios | distributor = Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | released = | runtime = 181 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $356 million | gross = $643.7 million }} 'Avengers: Endgame' is a 2019 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2012's ''The Avengers, 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron and 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, and the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and features an ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Bradley Cooper, and Josh Brolin. In the film, the surviving members of the Avengers and their allies work to reverse the damage caused by Thanos in Infinity War. The film was announced in October 2014 as Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2. The Russo brothers came on board to direct in April 2015, and by May, Markus and McFeely signed on to script the film. In July 2016, Marvel removed the title, referring to it simply as Untitled Avengers film. Filming began in August 2017 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, shooting back-to-back with Infinity War, and ended in January 2018. Additional filming took place in the Metro and Downtown Atlanta areas and New York. The official title was revealed in December 2018. Avengers: Endgame was widely anticipated, and Disney backed the film with extensive marketing campaigns. It premiered in Los Angeles on April 22, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on April 26, 2019, in IMAX and 3D. The film received praise for its direction, acting, entertainment value and emotional weight, with critics lauding its culmination of the 22-film story. It also broke numerous box office records, and has grossed over $643 million worldwide, becoming the third highest-grossing film of 2019. Plot Three weeks after Thanos used the Infinity Stones to disintegrate half of all life across the universe, Carol Danvers rescues Nebula and Tony Stark from deep space. They return to Earth and join the remaining Avengers—Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Rocket, Thor, and James Rhodes. They track down Thanos to an uninhabited planet where he is living alone as a farmer. The now-injured Thanos tells them that he destroyed the Infinity Stones to make the culling of the Universe irreversible. Thor then beheads Thanos. Five years later, Scott Lang escapes the quantum realm and meets Romanoff and Rogers at the Avengers' compound. Only five hours have passed for Lang instead of years, and he proposes going back in time via the quantum realm to stop Thanos. They ask Stark for help, but Stark refuses because he now has a daughter and worries what messing with the timeline might do to her. They then turn to Banner (who has learned to control his Hulk aspect), and he agrees to help them develop a time machine. Stark eventually has a change of mind and helps Banner complete the project. With new hope, Banner and Rocket travel to Norway, where the survivors of Asgard have established a small fishing community. They then find a fatter, drunk Thor and convince him to rejoin the Avengers. Likewise, Romanoff travels to Japan to find Barton, who has become a vicious vigilante, and convinces him to rejoin as well. The reunited Avengers split into several groups. Banner, Rogers, Lang, and Stark travel to New York City in 2012, while Banner visits the Sanctum Sanctorum to implore the Ancient One to give him the Time Stone. The Ancient One does so and tells Banner that the Stones must eventually be returned to their original time frames to prevent reality from breaking down. Rogers manages to steal Loki's scepter, which contains the Mind Stone, but Lang and Stark's attempt to steal the Tesseract (the Space Stone) fails, and Loki escapes with it. Rogers and Stark use the last of their size-altering Pym Particles to travel to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters in 1970; they steal an earlier version of the Tesseract from the vault and some vials of Pym Particles from Hank Pym's lab so they can return to the present. Rocket and Thor travel to Asgard in 2013 to extract the Aether (the Reality Stone) from Jane Foster, and Thor obtains his former hammer, Mjolnir. Barton and Romanoff travel to Vormir in 2014 and learn from the Soul Stone's keeper, the Red Skull, that it can only be acquired by sacrificing someone they love. After a fight, Romanoff sacrifices herself. On Morag in the same year, Nebula and Rhodes steal the Orb before Peter Quill can. Rhodes returns to the present with the Power Stone, but Nebula is unable to after her cybernetic implants interface with those of her 2014 self. Through this connection, Thanos accesses future-Nebula's memories and learns of the Avengers' plans. He sends 2014 Nebula to the present disguised as future-Nebula. With all the Infinity Stones collected in the present, Banner uses them to resurrect everyone whom Thanos disintegrated. 2014 Nebula uses the time machine to transport Thanos and his ship to the present day, and he attacks the Avengers' compound. 2014 Gamora gains compassion for and frees future-Nebula, who then confronts and shoots her 2014 version dead. Thanos then teleports to the surface to fight the Avengers in person. He tells them that he will use the Infinity Stones to destroy the Universe and create a new, better one, and nobody will remember the old one. Thanos overpowers the Avengers and summons his army to lay siege to Earth. Stephen Strange arrives with reinforcements, including his fellow sorcerers, the other restored Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy with Nebula beside them, and the armies of Asgard, Wakanda, and the Ravagers. They fight Thanos' army and are eventually joined by Danvers, who destroys Thanos' ship. Stark uses the Infinity Stones to disintegrate Thanos and his army, but the energy feedback kills him. Following a funeral for Stark, Thor appoints Valkyrie to replace him as the queen of Asgard and joins the Guardians of the Galaxy. Rogers returns the Infinity Stones and Mjolnir to their original places in time and then remains in the past to be with Peggy Carter. In the present, an elderly Rogers passes on his shield to Sam Wilson. Cast * Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man: * Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America: According to directors Joe and Anthony Russo, along with Downey, Evans may have been the other actor to have read the entire screenplay for the film. * Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk: being known as "Professor Hulk". The character concludes a story arc that was established in Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War.}} * Chris Hemsworth as Thor: * Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow: A highly trained spy, a member of the Avengers, and a former agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. * Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye: * Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine: A former officer in the U.S. Air Force and Avenger who operates the War Machine armor. * Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man: A former petty criminal who acquired a suit that allows him to shrink or grow in scale and increase in strength. Lang is portrayed by twins Bazlo and Loen LeClair as a baby, by Jackson Dunn at age 12, and by Lee Moore at age 93. * Brie Larson as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel: * Karen Gillan as Nebula: An adopted daughter of Thanos who was raised with Gamora as siblings. * Danai Gurira as Okoye: A Wakandan traditionalist from the Border Tribe, who is the head of the Dora Milaje, Wakanda's all-female special forces and T'Challa's bodyguards. * Benedict Wong as Wong: One of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, tasked with protecting some of Kamar-Taj's most valuable relics and books. * Jon Favreau as Harold "Happy" Hogan: The former head of security for Stark Industries and Tony Stark's driver and bodyguard. * Bradley Cooper as Rocket: * Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia "Pepper" Potts: Stark's wife and the CEO of Stark Industries, who wears a powered exosuit of armor in the film. This is Paltrow's final major appearance as Potts in the MCU. * Josh Brolin as Thanos: Several actors whose characters died during the events of Infinity War reprise their roles in Endgame, including Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange, Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther, Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne / Wasp, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, Linda Cardellini as Laura Barton, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw, Vin Diesel as Groot, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, as well as Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive, and Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian. Monique Ganderton provides the motion capture performance for Proxima Midnight. Also reprising their roles from past MCU films are Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Rene Russo as Frigga, John Slattery as Howard Stark, Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster (through unused footage from Thor: The Dark World and new voice over), Marisa Tomei as May Parker, Taika Waititi as Korg, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Winston Duke as M'Baku, Maximiliano Hernández as Jasper Sitwell, Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow, Jacob Batalon as Ned, Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce, Callan Mulvey as Jack Rollins, Ty Simpkins as Harley Keener, Ross Marquand as Red Skull, and Kerry Condon as the voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y. James D'Arcy reprises his role as Edwin Jarvis from the MCU television series Agent Carter, marking the first time a character introduced in an MCU television series appears in an MCU film. Additionally, Hiroyuki Sanada portrays Akihiko, a Yakuza boss operating in Tokyo who opposes Barton. Emma Fuhrmann portrays an older version of Cassie Lang, Scott's daughter. Avengers co-creator Stan Lee has a posthumous cameo in the film, appearing digitally de-aged as a car driver in 1970; this is his final cameo appearance in film. Community stars Ken Jeong and Yvette Nicole Brown cameo as a storage facility guard and a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, respectively. Co-director Joe Russo (credited as Gozie Agbo) has a cameo appearance as a man grieving the sudden loss of a loved one, which is the first time an openly homosexual character has been portrayed in an MCU film. Joe's daughters Ava and Lia portray Barton's daughter Lila and a fan of Professor Hulk, respectively. Thanos creator Jim Starlin also appears as a grieving man. Production In October 2014, Marvel announced a two-part sequel to Age of Ultron, titled Avengers: Infinity War. Part 1 was scheduled to be released on May 4, 2018, with Part 2 scheduled for May 3, 2019. In April 2015, Marvel announced that Anthony and Joe Russo would direct both parts of Avengers: Infinity War, with back-to-back filming expected to begin in 2016. Also in the month, Kevin Feige said the films were titled as two parts of a single film "because they have such shared elements", but he would not actually describe them as "one story that's cut in half. I would say it's going to be two distinct movies." By May 2015, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely signed on to write the screenplays for both parts of the film. The following May, the Russos revealed that they would be retitling the two films, to further remove the misconception that the films were one large film split in two, with Joe stating, "The intention is we will change titles, we just haven't come up with them yet." In July 2016, Marvel removed the film's title, simply referring to it as Untitled Avengers film. Feige and the Russo brothers indicated the title was being withheld because it would give away plot details for this film and Infinity War. Principal photography began on August 10, 2017, under the working title Mary Lou 2, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, with Trent Opaloch serving as director of photography. The film, along with Infinity War, were shot using IMAX/Arri 2D cameras, thus marking the first time that a Hollywood feature film was shot entirely with IMAX digital cameras. Also in the month, filming occurred in The Gulch area of Downtown Atlanta, near the Five Points MARTA station, and Piedmont Park. Feige stated that the films were originally scheduled to be filmed simultaneously but instead decided to shoot them back-to-back explaining, "We're doing them one right after another. It became too complicated to cross-board them like that, and we found ourselves—again, something would always pay the price. We wanted to be able to focus and shoot one movie and then focus and shoot another movie." Anthony Russo originally felt it made more sense to shoot the films simultaneously due to financial and logistical reasons considering the large number of cast members, even though each part is its own distinct film, and suggested that "some days we'll be shooting the first movie and some days we'll be shooting the second movie. Just jumping back and forth." Production wrapped on January 11, 2018, although additional filming took place in Dutchess and Ulster counties in New York in June 2018. Reshoots began by September 7, 2018, and concluded on October 12, 2018. More reshoots occurred in January 2019. Evans and Hemsworth each earned $15 million for the film. On December 7, 2018, with the release of the film's first trailer, the title was revealed to be Avengers: Endgame, while also moving its release date in the United States to April 26, 2019. Visual effects for the film were created by Industrial Light & Magic, Weta Digital, DNEG, Framestore, Cinesite, Digital Domain, Rise, Lola VFX, Cantina Creative, Capital T, Technicolor VFX, and Territory Studio. Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt served as the film's editors. Music In June 2016, Alan Silvestri, who composed the score for The Avengers, was revealed to be returning to score both Infinity War and Endgame. The Russos started working with Silvestri on the Endgame score in early November 2018, and it was completed in late March 2019. Silvestri described the score as having the most versatile tone of the franchise, ranging from "thunderous percussion and powerful brass" for the action sequences to minimalist, jazz-inspired music for Ant-Man and the quantum realm. Silvestri reprises his themes from the previous Avengers films and Captain America: The First Avenger, such as material he wrote for Thanos and the Infinity Stones in Infinity War. He found writing the music to end Captain America's story poignant, since he had "been on this journey with him since the beginning". The film's soundtrack also uses Christophe Beck's Ant-Man theme, Michael Giacchino's Doctor Strange theme, and Pinar Toprak's Captain Marvel theme. Additionally, the songs "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone and "It's Been a Long, Long Time" by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn are used, after previously being heard in Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, respectively. A soundtrack album for the film was released by Hollywood Records digitally on April 26, 2019, with a physical release on May 24. Marketing The marketing campaign for Endgame is the largest for any Marvel Studios film, surpassing $200 million and besting Infinity War s $150 million campaign. Promotional partners include Stand Up to Cancer, Mastercard, Ulta Beauty, the Audi e-tron GT Concept car (which is also featured in the film), McDonald's, GEICO, Coca-Cola, Google, General Mills, Hertz, Ziploc, Oppo, and Synchrony Financial. A year prior to the film's release, Germain Lussier of io9 spoke on the approach Marvel might have to take in marketing the film, given the end of Infinity War, which sees many established characters die. He questioned if those characters would appear on posters and in toy campaigns, and if the actors portraying them would participate in press events leading up to the film's release. Lussier felt Disney and Marvel could focus on the original Avengers team members, who make up the majority of the living characters, but noted it would be more beneficial to show the return of the dead characters, which would "build a mystery and curiosity about they come back. It could create a whole new level of interest about the film while having all the stars front and center, as they should be". In June 2018, Feige spoke to this, stating that these dead characters would not be featured in any marketing for the film, though the decision regarding that could change. He presented a behind-the-scenes video from the film at CineEurope, and said that the official marketing campaign for the film would begin at the end of 2018 with the announcement of the film's title then. In early December 2018, ahead of the first trailer's release, Graeme McMillan of The Hollywood Reporter spoke to the "fevered anticipation" surrounding it. McMillan felt what was so remarkable about the anticipation, was that it was mostly "fan-created, without noticeable direction from Marvel or the filmmakers involved" and that the amount of knowledge surrounding the film without any type of promotion was "a kind of brand awareness that most studios would kill for". Because of this, McMillan urged Marvel not to release any trailers for the film since "the advanced level of enthusiasm that's already out there for the movie... is only likely to build as it gets closer to" the film's release. That said, he added that the eventual release of the trailer would take away the "Schrödinger's cat-esque position... it currently enjoys" as it was "almost guaranteed to disappoint fans, who have by this point built up their own personal trailers filled with whatever moments are essential to their enjoyment of a good teaser". The first trailer for the film was released on December 7, 2018. Dustin Sandoval, vice president of digital marketing for Marvel Studios, stated the marketing team "actively made the choice not to include the title or hashtag of the movie in our trailer posts so fans could see it at the end reveal without it being spoiled". Richard Newby, also of The Hollywood Reporter felt, while not much new was revealed in the trailer, it "offers a somber glimpse of a universe made unrecognizable" and lets the viewer "sit, rightfully so, with the ending of Avengers: Infinity War and our questions of loss". Newby also noted how the trailer "calls back to beginnings of the MCU... as the visual language used in the trailer does a great service by highlighting these characters' humble beginnings", and concluded it leaves viewers with "just as many questions as we had before". Austen Goslin of Polygon pointed out that the title not only references a line Doctor Strange tells Tony Stark in Infinity War, but also a line spoken by Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Goslin, who felt this was "probably not an accident", said, "The scene surrounding this line in Age of Ultron is one of the most important ones in the movie. Things look dark, and the group of heroes face an enemy they don't think they can defeat." As such, the Endgame trailer "mirrors this perfectly" and "shows us that the Avengers' two most prominent characters are who they've always been: Iron Man, a pessimist who keeps fighting no matter how hopeless things look, and Captain America, an optimist who believes that nothing is hopeless when the world's heroes fight together". The trailer was viewed 289 million times in its first 24 hours, becoming the most viewed trailer in that time period, surpassing the record of Avengers: Infinity War (230 million views). The trailer also set a record for Twitter conversation for a film trailer in the first 24 hours generating 549,000 mentions. By January 3, 2019, BoxOffice revealed their "Trailer Impact" metric service indicated approximately 77–78% of people surveyed who viewed the Endgame trailer in the past three weeks expressed interest in seeing the film. In the three weeks it was measured by "Trailer Impact", it was number one for all, and had the top two percentage of respondents express interest in seeing the film since the service's introduction in March 2018. The second trailer for the film, along with the theatrical release poster, was released on March 14, 2019. The poster, featuring 13 characters, had 12 of those actors listed on the top-billing, with Danai Gurira excluded. Despite Gurira's name appearing in the poster's bottom billing block along with Benedict Wong, Jon Favreau, and Gwyneth Paltrow (none of whom were featured on the poster), her exclusion in the top billing prompted criticism from fans. Petrana Radulovic of Polygon noted how an actor is credited on the poster "is a complex process" and "the omission of Gurira in the top billing was less of a conscious decision than the ramifications of dealing with agents, fees, and movie star demands." However, later in the day Marvel Studios released an updated poster with Gurira's name in the top billing. The second trailer was viewed 268 million times in the first 24 hours, becoming the second most viewed trailer in that time period, behind the film's first trailer. Release Avengers: Endgame had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Convention Center on April 22, 2019. Disney converted the convention center's Hall K for the film's premiere, working with Dolby and QSC Audio to install a screen, Dolby Vision projectors, and a Dolby Atmos sound system. The convention center also held the premiere's red carpet arrival and after party. It was released in China, Australia, and other parts of Asia and Europe on April 24, 2019, and was released in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2019, and in the United States on April 26, 2019, in IMAX and 3D. It was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on May 3, 2019. Reception Box office Pre-sale records In late December 2018, Endgame was named the second-most anticipated 2019 film by IMDb behind Captain Marvel, the most anticipated blockbuster of 2019 according to the ticketing service Fandango, and the most anticipated overall film by Atom Tickets. Due to the high demand when pre-sale tickets became available in the U.S. on April 2, 2019, customers on both Atom Tickets and Fandango experienced long wait times and system delays, while AMC Theatres' website and app crashed completely for several hours. The same day, Fandango announced the film became its top-selling pre-sale title for the first 24 hours, topping Star Wars: The Force Awakens previous record in just six hours. Atom said it was also its best selling first-day film (outselling Aquaman by four-times), and Regal Cinemas reported that Endgame had sold more tickets in its first eight hours than Infinity War did in its entire first week. The film grossed $120–140 million in pre-sales alone. The day prior to the film's release, Fandango announced it was its biggest pre-selling title of all-time, besting The Force Awakens, with over 8,000 sold out showtimes across the country. In India, the film sold one million tickets in just one day for the English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu language screenings; 18 tickets were sold every second. In China, pre-sale tickets became available on April 12 and sold a record one million tickets in just six hours, outselling Infinity War s first 24 hour total within the first hour, and made $114.5 million (RMB 770 million) just from pre-sales. Performance , Avengers: Endgame has grossed in the United States and Canada, and in other territories, for a worldwide total of . On April 4, industry tracking projected the film would gross $200–250 million domestically during its opening weekend, although some insiders saw those figures as conservative and expected a $260–300 million debut. By the week of its release, domestic estimates had risen to $260–270 million, with some insiders still suggesting a $300 million debut was possible. The film played in 4,662 theaters, 410 of which were in IMAX; it is the widest release ever, surpassing the record of Despicable Me 3 s 4,529 theaters. Avengers: Endgame earned $156.7 million on its first day, including $60 million from Thursday night previews (both records). It was $37.3 million more than The Force Awakens previous record of $119.1 million, and pushed weekend projections to $349–356 million. Worldwide, Endgame is projected to gross $680 million over its first five days from every single foreign market (except for Russia), for a global debut of around $940-950 million. The film was initially projected to gross $250–280 million in China in its opening weekend. It made a record $107.5 million (RMB 719 million) in the country on its first day, including $26.8 million (RMB 180 million) from midnight, 3 AM and 6 AM screenings, besting The Fate of the Furious previous record of $9.1 million. Due to the record-breaking first day, partnered with word of mouth (with a 9.1 on local review aggregator Douban and a 9.3 on ticket website Maoyan), debut projections were increased to over $300 million. Overall, the film made $169 million on the first day from international countries, the highest total of all-time. Its largest markets after China were South Korea ($8.4 million; the largest non-holiday single day gross ever), Australia ($7.1 million), France ($6 million) and Italy ($5.8 million). Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 96% approval rating based on 376 reviews, with an average rating of 8.28/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Exciting, entertaining, and emotionally impactful, Avengers: Endgame does whatever it takes to deliver a satisfying finale to Marvel's epic Infinity Saga." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 55 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled for CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade, the third Marvel film to earn the score, while those at PostTrak gave it 5 out of 5 stars and a "definite recommend" of 85%. Writing for NPR, Glen Weldon gave the film a positive review and found the film to be a worthy sequel to its predecessor film as well as the other 22 previous films in the Marvel franchise stating, "The Russos' decision to stick close to the experiences of the remaining Avengers proves a rewarding one, as they've expressly constructed the film as an extended victory lap for the Marvel Cinematic Universe writ large. Got a favorite character from any Marvel movie over the past decade, no matter how obscure? Prepare to get serviced, fan."Guy Weldon, "Mourning Has Broken Them: 'Avengers: Endgame'" April 24, 2019, NPR. http://www.npr.org/2019/04/24/716315111/mourning-has-broken-them-avengers-endgame Peter Travers in his review for Rolling Stone magazine gave the film a 4 out of 5 stars, saying "You don’t have to make jokes about the clichéd time travel plot — the film is ready, willing and able to make its own, with Back to the Future coming in for a serious ribbing."Peter Travers. "'Avengers: Endgame’ Review: The MCU’s Long Goodbye Is an Emotional Wipeout". April 24, 2019, Rolling Stone magazine. http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/avengers-endgame-movie-review-marvel-825435/ Peter Debruge of Variety wrote, "After the must-see showdown that was Infinity War, the Russo brothers deliver a more fan-facing three-hour followup, rewarding loyalty to Marvel Cinematic Universe. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter said, "What comes across most strongly here, oddly enough for an effects-driven comic-book-derived film, is the character acting, especially from Downey, Ruffalo, Evans, Hemsworth, Brolin and Paul Rudd as Ant-Man." Richard Roeper, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film four stars and called it "the undisputed champion the MCU when it comes to emotional punch". Roeper went on to praise the "funny, well-paced, smart, expertly rendered screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, crisp direction from Anthony Russo and Joe Russo..., and the universally stellar performances the cast." The New York Times reviewer A. O. Scott gave the film a positive though guarded review given his views on the graphic novel background of the film's superhero characters stating, "Still, Endgame is a monument to adequacy, a fitting capstone to an enterprise that figured out how to be good enough for enough people enough of the time. Not that it’s really over, of course: Disney and Marvel are still working out new wrinkles in the time-money continuum. But the Russos do provide the sense of an ending, a chance to appreciate what has been done before the timelines reset and we all get back to work." Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "Avengers: Endgame achieves and earns its climactic surge of feeling, even as it falls just short of real catharsis". Richard Brody writing for The New Yorker magazine on April 26, 2019 gave the film a critical review commenting on good acting in the film as being unmatched by comparable skill from the direction of the Russo brothers, stating: "The Russos have peculiarly little sense of visual pleasure, little sense of beauty, little sense of metaphor, little aptitude for texture or composition; their spectacular conceit is purely one of scale, which is why their finest moments are quiet and dramatic ones".Richard Brody. The New Yorker. 'Review: What “Avengers: Endgame” Could Have Been.' April 26, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/review-what-avengers-endgame-could-have-been Anthony Lane, while writing a joint film review of Endgame with a new biopic for Nureyev for The New Yorker magazine on April 26, 2019, gave the film a compromising review finding the film to be overdeveloped and overwrought, stating: "For a while, in fact, that scenario (of weak filmmaking) seems quite likely, since most of the characters have gone to seed. Thanos has renounced mass destruction in favor of tending his vegetable patch, Black Widow sits around eating peanut-butter sandwiches, and Thor is a fat slob. How they eventually get their shit together for a grand and redemptive slugfest, I refuse to reveal".Anthony Lane. The New Yorker. 'Dual film review: “The White Crow” and "Avengers: Endgame"'. April 26, 2019. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/06/-the-white-crow-and-the-difficulty-with-dance-movies Future In May 2018, Disney CEO Bob Iger said of Marvel's plans beyond Endgame, "I'm guessing we will try our hand at what I'll call a new franchise beyond Avengers, but that doesn't necessarily mean you won't see more Avengers down the road. We just haven't made any announcements about that." Iger added, "Given the popularity of the characters and given the popularity of the franchise, I don't think people should conclude there will never be another Avengers movie." Shortly after the film's premiere, Anthony Russo stated that he and Joe Russo did not "have any plans for now to make any more Marvel movies" after Endgame, but that they were not opposed to returning to the MCU in the future due to their "wonderful" relationship with Marvel Studios. Notes References }} External links * * Category:2010s action films Category:2019 3D films Category:2010s sequel films Category:2010s superhero films Category:2010s science fiction action films Category:Alternate timeline films Category:American films Category:American 3D films Category:American action films Category:American science fiction action films Category:American science fiction war films Category:Avengers (film series) Category:Crossover films Category:English-language films Category:Films about quantum mechanics Category:Films about size change Category:Films scored by Alan Silvestri Category:Films directed by Anthony and Joe Russo Category:Films about extraterrestrial life Category:Time travel films Category:Films about revenge Category:Films featuring anthropomorphic characters Category:Films set in the 1940s Category:Films set in the 1970s Category:Films set in the 2010s Category:Films set in the 2020s Category:Films set in New Jersey Category:Films set in New York (state) Category:Films set in New York City Category:Films set in Norway Category:Films set in San Francisco Category:Films set in Tokyo Category:Films set on fictional planets Category:Films shot at Pinewood Atlanta Studios Category:Films shot in Atlanta Category:Films shot in New York (state) Category:Films using computer-generated imagery Category:IMAX films Category:Intergalactic travel in fiction Category:Marvel Cinematic Universe films Category:Nanotechnology in fiction Category:Motion capture in film Category:Post-apocalyptic films Category:Screenplays by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely Category:Sequel films